VLily - A Satisfactory Tale - Chapter I (drawn)
by Bulinckx
Summary: How I ended building a factory in an alien planet


VLily - A Satisfactory Tale - Chapter I (drawn 1.2)

A dozen light-colored moons where quickly circling a massive brow gas giant as if they are joyfully playing a tag-like game around a big and fat unperturbed nanny.

The happy thought arose from the depths of her mind helped by the loud buzz of the crowd.

She found a seat facing its back to the round table so he turned over her boots to sit on it and turned again, this time on the chair axis, to face the table.

Quickly rested a big cup of shake on it and with the now free hand grabbed the nutritional bar was being held by her own mouth,

but not before a mumble try of a "Hello" in response to a coworker.

Her attention was on the childish moon, one colored with a violet tone on the hologram.

"Dinlkey!" called again the coworker trying again to call her attention but only breaking the spell of the infant memories.

On the station, he was grown and raised, no one referred to one-another by the surname, never.

On that place, he used to call home, the complete first name was formal enough.

Family and friends called any another by short nicknames and invented middle names when necessary.

She was "V" or "VLily" or just "Lily" since few worked on the vertical flowers gardens in that old farm station. Most of the station workforce was necessary to deal with the immense artificial food vats, capable of supply nutritional bars to the entire system.

It was an old and rusted station. Crowded because the lack of habitable sections, most of its space was destined to machinery, industrial containers, water supply, and the hydroponic walls.

The biggest open space was the "greenhouse" where colorful walls of flowers of many types where growth for unknown purposes.

For sure it was not for food. VLily tried to eat a few. Her caregiver, an old and cracked lady responsible for her and another two dozen kid, told once they are raised for their beautiful to be used as gifts between the higher ranks, like CEO.

VLily doesn't believe that. Why the CEO cannot cultivate their own flowers? Why they can gift one another if they are too precious? Wasting a single flower (and being caught) can be bad enough to send one to remove fat from the sewer tubes forever.

VLily believed the flowers to have some noble and vital purpose in the oxygen resupply system or in water recycling.

\- Dinkley, I don't believe we got assigned to the same planet!

\- It's not a planet, it's a moon and everybody on the ship got the same assignment, and I mean e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e.

A.D.A. Make it very clear yesterday, on the assignment announce, besides, the ship was fully automatic and has no crew.

All the biological beings here are newly graduated engineers from the Save The Day Program.

* Yesterday *

VLily was in the refectory with other graduates, spending her hard-earned extra ration quote with a big coup of shake.

\- Better spend it before we are assigned. I doubt they are giving us shake machine recipes and artificial vanilla flavor.

The announcement got her at the end of the phrase.

\- I am A.D.A., also known as Artificial Directory and Assistant, tasked to support pioneers, such as you, in their mission.

A.D.A. always announced important things with the same pre-recorded audio.

\- Your planetfall sector has been assigned, please check your inbox for details.

At once a hundred young engineers in the room opened their holo-pads. VLily opened the last email:

From: Ficsit company

TO: Employee DD164DE2-BE7D-462E-A7C7-C2121F6AE7A0

Your assigned sector and coordinates are:

S3C705-02

Present yourself at the cargo bay in 21:59:37 (countdown).

Your queue service number is: 42 to the auto logistic dispenser H4.

You will be receiving a Ficsit crate containing:

1x Suit Ev-A0, complete with helmet

You must equip the environmental suit and proceed to the Drop pod bay A and form the line to the embark at the gate A01 in 22:59:32 (countdown).

Attached below are the specifications of the working material will be granted to you.

Remember all the equipment, suits and vehicles are the property of the Ficsit company and you as an employer is legally obligated to eventually return all gear in a functional state.

After it, there's a little educational animation about the planet fall procedure where the Ficsit mascot embarks in a capsule and plumes down to a small round asteroid with tiny craters to put a Ficsit flag on it.

VLily looked around to see each face reading their own emails knowing the only difference between each email can be only a few numbers and the reaction of each recipient.

She observed some of their faces turning red others pale and a handfull running for the toilets and smiled to herself.

* Back to the present scene *

\- I cannot find much info about the planet nor the sector itself.

Replyed she in a try to turn the small talk in something useful, maybe someone found something beyond the basics covered in the Ficsitpedia.

\- Based on the limited data I guess this is a new-formed system from the remains of a fifth-generation star.

The whole system looks a bit odd and the rock moons around those gas giants can be mineral-rich. Otherwise, Fixit cannot be interested in exploring them in the first place.

"Bia" that was the nickname VLily secretly gives to that tall girl. In her mind, she called each one of the interns by a nickname in the way it was in her home station.

But she never told that, nicknames can be weird and disgusting for those people, like a bee in the shake.

\- I loooove surprises, also I'm sure we will be fine, otherwise, Ficsit cannot be sending us down here.

That was "Blueblob" the chubby boy wasted most of his extra-credits in hair tincture and weird stuff on his face.

He rarely has something useful to say and looked to enjoy too much of his own voice, to the dismay of rest of interns.

\- Has anyone any clue about the native life?

Asked VLily in a condescending tone, knowing most of them has zero contact with any biological being beyond humans, even plants.

There are a few seconds of silence so, "Bia" looked around and replied.

\- The instructions are clear about using environmental suits class A with helmets all the time. That indicates at least barely breathable air but...

We are not even sure about "life".

She tried to not look worried at all but her speech was slower than the usual and the tone was a bit nervous at the start but soon tried to show more confidence with the last remark.

\- The planetoid is "young" so there's no chance to sentient life to be evolved here by the way, even if there's any.

\- No matter what's living here, I'm sure we can share an acerola shake with it and have a good time!

"Blueblob" intromission on the talking at least served as a good excuse to a change of topics.

But VLily was thinking if there are flowers, bees and moths in the surface, or things nasty as rodents.

Her home station was "contamined" with critters. Creatures not intended to be here. That was very odd, since most stations are completaly sterile and devoid of any no humam life.

She learned, from horrorized interns, even plants are oddities, in general stuff for excentric CEOs.

She finished his shake and bars and got to the dormitory. When she was lying in the "bunk bed" looking to the ceilling she said to herself.

\- Silly VLily, no chance of finding rodents. There are no sewers in that moon.

So she felt to a dreamless sleep.

*The other day*

She arrived five minutes early at the biologist dispenser lines knowing she can arrive at least ten minutes later and still wait here for her number to be called.

When the number forty-one lighted in red at the monitor and a loud signal called the next to be served no one showed up.

The automatic system keept calling it in that irritating noise until VLily stepped in and put her arms under the dispenser.

The machine dropped a big white plastic crate in her hands and she just put it on the floor at her side, so she steped back and forward and repeated the gesture with the arms to receive another crate.

\- This one is for my size.

Was her tought.

She looked to the black crate cover lying int the floor while walked away, for the changing room. She can listen to a soft buzz from the other people in line behind her.

She waited a few minutes before a changing room was available. She entered and there's a big pile of white crates and another of black covers standing against the wall.

She opened the crate to find the brow suit and helmet, gloves, belt, boots, and a small rod.

She removed his jumpsuit and boots and dropped it in the small hole with the arrow and inscription "Dirt clothes here".

The environmental suit was surprisingly comfortable, the boots were almost identical to she just discarded, the belt was a worker belt with places to attach tools.

That she finds amusing, why to attach tools if there's plenty of room in the dimensional pockets?

She put her gloves and her holo-pad alarm signaled she was late, she lost time waiting for a room, she quickly grabbed the rod and put it on the belt and rushed to the Drop pod bay.

The drop pods bay was at the top ship deck, she was always thinking about that big ship, circling the moon but in reality, the ship was up-side-down in relation with it.

With its dark metallic belly exposed to the void and the bright withe top pointing to the clouds and ground many hundred kilometers distant.

She has joined the line just in the last minute when they are entering.

The bay was a dark and small place due to the low height of the floor. Taller members of the team needed to bend while walking here. VLily was happy to be short.

There are lots of vertical bars, equally spaced so they can grab on it to help mobility.

There's first signal and each capsule hatch opened from the ceiling and lights from inside it cleared the room. There are four lines with dozen pods each in the room.

There's a second signal and the artificial gravity was turned off so everyone can easily climb inside his/her pod.

VLily felt his weight disappear and firmly holding the vertical bars tumbled with her legs together to enter the pod.

She grabbed one of the seat belts were floating here and with a bit of difficult managed to turn around and tie herself in the seat.

Not one second passed after she achieved putting herself in place and a third signal sounded.

The pod hatch closed and she felt his heart pounding. She tried to convince herself it was thanks to microgravity effect she can fell each heartbeat, each breath, each cell of his body screaming.

There's not a fourth signal, or it was muffled by the vacuum. With no notice, the pod was slung from the ship bay.

It quickly wonble and thumbled away and VLily can see the ship a few times for a fraction of second before the pod stabilized in a position she can see the moon horizon.

She felt her legs and arms trying to fluctuate around and looked to stuff inside the cabin and know she was on free falling.

A screen descended in position to show a small cartoon-like institutional animation using an A.D.A. voiced pre-recorded audio.

A silly way to try to calm the nerves for someone was about to collide with a dense atmosphere at many kilometers per second.

She tanked when the small silly show ended but not when the vibration started. She looked above and think who put a screen here, where it can fall and hurt her!

The vibration got worse and worse and she can see the hot plasma forming by the shock with the high atmosphere gases.

The light and sound from the shockwaves make it sounds as she was burning. And, in fact, the pod ablative shield was being cooked and eroded while VLily hoped it was thick enough to endure the ordeal.

She finally felt the atmosphere slowing her down and felt like she was three hundred kilograms heavy.

She most felt than listened to the landing rockets firing. It was like she felt from great heigh while seated and almost passed out thanks to the g-forces.

But the propulsion readily slowed the deceleration and in the end, it was almost if the capsule was floating.

And sudenly it landed as if dropped from a small height.

She can see the green from the windows and his head was still turning but she managed to open the hatch, after taking a deep breath. That lasted seconds but looked like an eternity. So she grabbed herself from the pod.

She was standing outside the capsule and she can hear A.D.A. voice in her helmet greeting her for surviving.

\- Oh thanks, I'm sure I can be a great cannonball.

She whispered for herself sarcastically while felling an strong stomach discomfort.

VLily looked in the direction to the sky above her, not to appreciate it but to get rid of nausea, a maneuver she learned in the "101 - Planetfall Survival holo-video" seh watched last night.

\- Nothing can be worse than vomiting inside this damn thing.

The impossibility of surviving without the helmet and suit was not a thing she gives a second thought before but now that was hitting her mind like a ringing bell.

The sun was a big bright white light in a pale blue cloudless sky when something started to cast a shadow, eclipsing it and looking to her.

VLily got no reaction, no at all, no urge to flee or fight, just keep standing as if all her muscles where sudden frozen by liquid hydrogen.

A small head lowered to near her face and, she can see a pair of curious black blinking eyes.

A tiny beak opened wide but he cannot hear any sound.

Weeks later she can get herself remembering this moment and guessing the thing was just puzzled by its reflection in the helmet visor. But at that point in time, her mind was blank.

There are no fear, angry or worries. At that moment she was not different from a tree trunk stuck in the field.

The thing raised its small head a kept slowly moving forward in the direction to a near tree were started to forage on its leaves.

VLily itching wide-open eyes demanded her to blink and her head finally landed back to her body.

She observed four long slim legs impossible sustaining a big bloated body.

\- A walking ballon? No way that thing can be a water-based body, even in this low gravity.

She looked that strange thing feeding in the tree canopy for a while and started to look around, all those tree and vegetation and...land.

\- Soil! I'm standing in this strange natural hydroponic substrate but it doesn't look very wet. I read all about it and there are the nanny histories about it. How we, humans, used to live on planet surfaces and grow crops on it.

She bent down and grabbed the grass and pulled it and observed it roots full of dirt and she can see tiny white dots moving, scared from the daylight and a small redworm writhing.

\- That don't look edible, can it produce fruit?

Dozens of question are popping in her mind at the same time when a new A.D.A. pre-recorded milestone prompted asking her to equip the Xeno-Zapper and deconstruct the capsule.

She got both items form their slots inside the capsule and attached them in her tools belt. So she deconstructed the capsule. She was used to it, last weeks was all about using it and she enjoyed the drill.

She excelled in using it, never missing a piece unfinished and constantly getting the highest scores on each exercise.

The Xeno-zapper was a strange thing she inspected it for a while felling its weight and pulled the trigger to test it.

\- Ok wilderness, it's you and me now.

But A.D.A. prompted again, speaking about finding iron.

\- You, me and this insufferable chatbox. 


End file.
